January Doldrums - Project 2

Update on Project 1: I finished dusting and going through the books on the bookcases and donated most of the books to the Goodwill. I dropped those off today, which felt so good. I love getting rid of stuff. The rest of the books that I had weeded out, went to a used bookstore. I had no idea we had one in our town, but last weekend, there was an article about it in the local newspaper. Perfect timing.

Project 2 - Clean and Organize Pantry

Unlike the bookcase project, this only took a couple of hours. It was cold and snowy out--a perfect time to stay in and work.

I took some "before" pictures.

I started at the bottom and worked my way up. I have to say, I was appalled at some of the things I found. I had a homemade bean soup mix that one of my husband's employees had given to us at least 15 years ago. It was a cute idea, but I never made it. And I could never bring myself to throw it away, because I felt bad about doing that. Not today! The best (or worst) item was the corn meal that expired back in 2004. (I guess it's been a while since I made corn muffins.)

The dust on the rims of the baskets was scary. I vacuumed those off. I didn't realize canned goods have such a short shelf life. I found canned green beans and pineapple that had expired a few years ago. I'm going to be honest here. I confess--I decided to keep the green beans and pineapple. I'll open them sometime soon and evaluate the situation then. (I can relate, in a small way, to how those people on "Hoarders" feel. Right now, I can't bring myself to throw those two cans away. But I'll work on it.)

My after pictures:

Sunday Routine

I really dislike going to the grocery store. Also, I hate that feeling of panic at 5:00, when I ponder what we should have for dinner. When my husband and I were first married, I would go to the store and think to myself while pushing the grocery cart up and down the aisles, "Hmm, what should we have to eat this week?" I would haphazardly grab things off the shelves, spend more money than I needed to, and would invariably throw things away that I didn't use. I never opened a cookbook, so we had a lot of chicken in the crock pot and apple sauce with every meal.

Thankfully, my cooking skills have evolved. Every Sunday, I sit down with some cookbooks and plan my menu for the week.

I make out my grocery list at the same time, and if I'm really on top of things, I try to incorporate what's on sale at the store (from the flyer in the Sunday paper) into my menu. If I have time (and depending on my mood), I'll look for new recipes. I usually try at least one new recipe a week. In the summer, I also plan my menu around the weather report. If rain is predicted, I'll plan something that doesn't require the grill--like pasta, or a main dish salad.

I have a lot of cookbooks, so I had to come up with some type of system so I could remember where a recipe was located. (This system predates the PC age.) I organized a spiral notebook with divider labels and record every recipe that we try and like in the notebook.

I probably could put it on the computer and make my life easier, but it's beyond my level of skill. So I'll stick with the old plan. It works.

All of this planning usually results in only one trip a week to the store. Of course, things come up and plans change, so I'm flexible. All in all, this system has helped me save time in the long run, as well as money and stress.